Family
by tommyhanson
Summary: The first part in the sequel to my fic "Hesitate." I'm trying to work my way to a happy or at least slightly less depressing ending.
1. Chapter 1

A/N - Okay, so I'm not entirely satisfied with this. I'll read it over once and am fine with it, and then read it over a minute later and want to chuck it out the nearest window. Oh well. I'm posting it anyways. Crappy Leverage fic is better than no Leverage fic, right? (Especially when we don't even have any new episodes for _months._ I've been watching somewhere between 4 to 13 episodes every day just to try and keep my sanity. …Maybe that's what I chucked out the window…?) Oh, also, I just realized how incredibly difficult Parker is to write. So accolades for everybody out there who's so much as _attempted _to write her. Trying to keep her in character is like trying to catch a greased pig - near impossible.

It was Parker that finally got to him, in the end. Eliot had gone to his apartment (not home, because _home_ had gotten blown up months ago) after playing a double set down at the old 'Bull-rider's Tavern'. He was tired and dirty from baking beneath the stage lights, and the dust that he'd kicked up from the walk to his truck had stuck to his drying sweat making him feel even grimier. All he wanted was a long shower, a beer, and a semi-violent sports game to help him unwind, which was probably why when he noticed that his door was unlocked (when he _knew _he had locked it) that he called out more aggressively than usual "You have ten seconds to get the hell out of my apartment before I break your damned neck!"

Parker appeared suddenly, and his stormy blue eyes softened just a bit when he saw her, fidgeting awkwardly, and looking every where but at him. "I know Nate said it's rude to break into people's homes," she began, and his fingers twitched a bit at the use of the word 'home', "but I wanted to talk to you, so I did it anyway."

He nodded slowly. "Alright. What did you wanna talk t'me about?"

She fidgeted a bit more, pulling at the hem of her shirt, and scuffing her converse-covered feet against the hardwood floor, before crossing her arms and finally locking her eyes onto his face. "Hardison keeps saying that we're a family."

He opened his mouth to protest, but she rushed on.

"I didn't think he was right, at first, because we're all so different and we argue all the time and stuff, but even though we're _always_ getting on each other's nerves, we still _care_. We help each other and we trust each other, and I think that's why you won't come back. Sophie conned us, and I think it bothers you so much because you _trusted_ her, you trusted _us_, and she betrayed us and you _care_. I think you're not used to trusting people. I think that maybe you're a little bit like me, and you're not used to _caring_. But you do, and that bothers you. It used to bother me too." She took a step towards him, and suddenly he was the one avoiding her eyes. "But I don't think it's gonna go away. I don't think you're gonna just stop caring just because you're avoiding us." She took a few steps towards the door, so that he had to turn to face her, and he noted the little wrinkle that appeared between her scrunched brows as she apparently thought out what words to say. "That's why I think that maybe Hardison's right. Because no matter what family does, no matter what mistakes they make, you have to forgive them. Because you still _care_, no matter what."

Silence permeated the room for a moment, before a smile spread slowly across Parker's face. "Nate found us a new place. I'll even buy you a plant if you want."

He opened and closed his mouth a few times, trying to find the words, trying to find _any _words.

But then he blinked, and she was gone.

A/N (Yes, another one. Sorry.) I'll probably be writing a little more to this (probably another chapter or two) so let me know what I did good/bad for next time. (Yes, this is a subtle way of begging for reviews. If that doesn't work, I may have to resort to bribery. Who likes cookies?)


	2. Chapter 2

A/N - Okay, so here's the next part. I actually had to redo an entire section of it (sadly, because I really like the original version a lot better) because of continuity issues… Also, when I wrote this out (on the back of a Creative Writing assignment, lol) it seemed a lot longer… Well, at least it's longer than the last chapter. Okay, anyways, please (as usual) review and let me know what you like (or don't) so I'll know for next time. Thanks! =)

"**Family" - Chapter 2**

Nate stood in an empty office, absently swirling a half-full glass of bourbon, and wondering at the strange turns his life had taken. Five years ago, he thought he'd spend the rest of his life with his wife, his son, and that damned company, chasing thieves to the far reaches of the globe and back. He never would have believed that in a few years time he'd be working with those same thieves. And he certainly never could have imagined _missing_ them.

But he had. In the brief time they'd been apart, he had been shocked to find himself drinking more and more as the days wore on, much to Sophie's concern. He didn't understand it at first. He had gotten the revenge he had been craving, confessed his darkest secret to his (ex!, Sophie's voice piped up in his head) wife, and was finally was, if not making peace with, then moving past his son's death. So why did he feel that aching emptiness?

He'd dragged himself to the bathroom mirror, and stared into his own bloodshot eyes trying to puzzle it out. He suddenly noticed how empty the hotel room was, how hollow without the others' childish bickering.

And he missed it. Almost desperately, in the way he yearned for the soft tapping of keys from Hardison's computer, and the soothing scent of Eliot's own blend of tea, and Parker's strange and unusual entrances.

No one was as surprised as him.

The front door opened, pulling him from his musings, and he smiled a bit at the familiar sound of Hardison and Parker's good-natured arguing, and Sophie's temperate voice. He pretended that his chest didn't tighten a bit at the absence of the rough Southern drawl mingling with the others.

They walked into the room, Sophie's arms laden with bags, and Parker's curled protectively around a potted plant. Hardison's face was twisted into an expression of half amusement, and half exasperation, long arms gesticulating wildly as he tried to explain to her "You can't feed it steak, Parker."

"Why not? It's my little carnivore, aren't you," she cooed at the plant.

"It's a _Venus Fly Trap_, Parker, it eats _flies._"

She seemed to consider this for a moment, then decided "Well, it's Eliot's plant. I'll ask him when he comes back."

The silence that greeted that comment was not unlike that which you'd find at a funeral parlor. Long, and heavy, where people scarcely dared to breathe for the chance of breaking it.

"Parker…" Hardison finally began.

Nate cut him off. "Yeah, Parker. When Eliot comes back."

She smiled then, and left the room, informing them that she was going to put "the little carnivore" in Eliot's office for him.

Eliot's office. The office Parker had insisted upon, that Sophie had carefully furnished, and Hardison had optimistically outfitted with a new computer system. The office that they couldn't bring themselves to enter once the work was done and it was full with _things_, but still so startlingly _empty_. Save for Parker, who believed wholeheartedly that Eliot was coming back. When asked why she was so certain, she would only reply "Because we're his family."

Nate wished he could believe that. But he knew better than the others of Eliot's background, knew that even "family" could only push so hard before he'd be forced to either push back or break.

But Eliot was strangely, _fiercely_ loyal. And when it came to family, he never pushed back. No matter how broken he became because of it.

Eliot always seemed so strong, so unflappable, so _solid_, that Nate sometimes forgot how many times he'd been pieced back together.

They say hindsight's 20/20, and looking back, it's so clear to Nate that that brief moment on the tarmac, when Eliot had stopped moving away from them, and they'd all _paused_, it was a silent plea, to "_Please ask me to stay."_

But Nate hadn't heard it then, as he'd stood stubbornly, his back turned against his team, wasting precious minutes.

He hadn't heard it until he was seated in his hotel, staring vacantly out the window, replaying every second in his head, and only then noticing the painful, shaking sigh that had preceded the stilted steps of Eliot's boots.

Then he'd heard it.

He heard it so loud that he went through the hotel's well-stocked mini-bar trying to drown out the noise.

Parker bounced back into the room, bringing Nate once more into the present.

He tore his eyes away from her smiling face, looking down at the drink in his hand, and drained it in one long swallow.

Nathan knew better than the other's of Eliot's past.

That's why he knew just how big of a mistake he'd made.

What he didn't know was how to tell Parker that Eliot wasn't coming back.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N - This was supposed to be the end. It really_, really_ was. Of course, so was the last chapter. And the one before that. Actually, to be fair, "Hesitate" wasn't supposed to spawn any fics at all. It was supposed to be a one-shot. And now it's become the never-ending fic. *Sigh.* Okay, so anyways, it's longer than the other chapters, so whoo-hoo on that account. Umm… Oh, it has more dialogue than the other chapters, and I have dialogue issues, so I hope it's okay… And I have absolutely no idea where I'm going with this story, but apparently my Evil Hand has taken charge, so I'm sorry there's not really any Eliot in this chapter, you'll have to take any grievances up with it. Oh, and please review. I've found reviews both make me happy and make me pressured into writing more and quickly. Thanks! =)

"**Family" - Chapter Three**

Hardison was in the kitchen when the yelling started. He froze, soda bottle half way to his lips, and quickly set it down, hurrying into the other room, anxious to see what all the commotion was about. He stood in the doorway, transfixed, watching the scene before him play out.

Parker and Nate stood opposite each other, Sophie watching from the sidelines, as Parker shook her head, blonde hair flying about, and her arms crossed in front of her chest. "I don't believe you!" she said, and while she wasn't quite screaming, she was definitely several decibels louder than her normal voice.

"Parker-" Nate began, and he took a step forward, causing her to take a reflexive step back, looking a bit like a cornered animal, her eyes darting quickly to the window.

"No! _I don't believe you!_ I talked to him, Nate, and he _listened."_

"Parker, just because somebody _seems _like they're listening, it doesn't mean you've changed their minds. People don't just-"

"I'm not talking about _people_, I'm talking about Eliot! I know I don't know people, but I know him!"

Now Nate was shouting too. "No you don't! You may think you do, but you don't! You can't understand Parker, you don't know about his past, you don't know what I do!"

"I know Eliot!"

"You don't! You don't know him! He won't come back, Parker! He can't! When he was a kid, he - His family they-" Nate stopped suddenly, and Hardison saw his eyes darken a bit, his brows scrunching further, looking angry and sad, and an emotion that may have resembled regret. He let out a heavy breath, almost like a sigh, and met Parker's eyes.

"We left him, Parker."

She shifted her weight from foot to foot. "We all left, Nate."

"He's been left before," Nate told her softly. "Too many times." He was quiet for a moment, before he told her firmly, "He's not coming back, Parker."

Her face seemed to turn to granite, her eyes cold as she told him stonily "I don't believe you."

Then she jumped out the window.

Nate sighed deeply, and dropped his head into his hands.

"Nate," Sophie started, approaching him slowly, "What you were going to say before, about Eliot's family…"

Nate heard the question in her voice, and raised his head wearily. "It's not my place to tell, Sophie."

The room fell into silence again, and Hardison stepped forward. "Y'know, Parker seemed really upset. Maybe I should-"

"Give her an hour or two to cool off," Nate told him. "If she's not back by then, we can go track her down."

Hardison nodded jerkily. "Yeah. Alright."

Nate rubbed at the back of his neck, his eyes still a shade darker and far away. "I need a drink," he mumbled, walking out of the room.

Not even Sophie tried to stop him.

Parker showed up, just as Nate had predicted, only a couple of hours later, although her eyes were still cold, and she was eerily quiet. Her words to both Sophie and Hardison were kept to a bare minimum, and she refused to even _look_ at Nate, let alone speak to him.

"Parker," Nate finally tried, "I didn't-"

She got up and walked out of the room.

Hardison waited a few moments, and when it became apparent that she wasn't going to return he went to seek her out.

He found her in Eliot's office, sitting on the floor, back pressed against the wall, and legs huddled up against her chest. She was fiddling with something in her hands that Hardison couldn't see, and seemingly not noticing his presence in the doorway. He took a deep breath, bracing himself, and entered the room.

It should be easier, he supposed, that it wasn't the same offices that they had spent the better part of a year in. That it didn't smell like Eliot's tea, or have the scuffmarks from his boots. He should feel grateful.

Instead, he felt cheated. There was nothing here to prove that Eliot had been with them. That he had been a part of their messy family.

Hardison's hatred of Sterling grew just a little bit more, for taking that from them.

"You can't make me believe him," Parker said, still looking at whatever was in her hands.

"Parker," he began cautiously, not wanting her to run off again. "I don't really wanna believe it either, but maybe Nate's right. I mean, Eliot's always been more of the lone wolf type, y'know?"

"We all worked alone before that first job. And we all became a part of this team. This… _family._ You're the one who told me that, Hardison, that we were a family, you told me until I believed you, and now, what? Now you're saying Eliot's not a part of it anymore? That he's just gone? No. I don't believe that. Nate's wrong."

Hardison sighed and ran a hand across his eyes. He knew how Parker felt. He wanted to believe that Eliot would come back too. That he'd finish teaching him how to throw a "proper" punch, and whine like all hell when Hardison tried to make him type something. That he'd just waltz right through the door like nothing had changed, like they hadn't made too many damned mistakes, that they hadn't walked away like the whole thing, the entire _year_ as a team, a family, had been one big con. He wished he'd just come back so Sophie could stop blaming herself, and Nate could stop blaming himself, and Parker could stop blaming them both. Because he just knew that they could only take so much guilt and blame and anger before Eliot wasn't the only one who was gone.

Theirs was a house of cards - you take away one, and everything falls apart.

Hardison tried to think of the right words to say, something which he normally excelled at, but couldn't. He didn't know the right words anymore. So instead, he tried a distraction. "Hey, what's that you got there?"

She glanced up briefly, and saw his eyes trained on her hands, still moving restlessly over the small object in her palm. She held it up for him to see.

"A guitar pick?" he asked, mildly surprised to find it wasn't a small lock or miniature explosive of some sort.

"I stole it from Eliot. A while ago. I stole something from each of you, actually."

Hardison wrinkled up his forehead, trying to think of anything he'd had that had mysteriously gone missing. Parker saw his look.

"A bottle cap."

His confusion deepened at her words.

"A bottle cap. From your orange sodas. I took one of the bottle caps." She ran her thumbnail absently over the pick, catching it on the edge, and releasing it, making a tiny clicking noise. "I stole the things I knew you guys wouldn't notice I'd taken. So I could keep them."

Hardison noticed that she was doing that thing again, like she had done in Belgrade, where she carefully controlled her breathing, and swallowed a little harder, trying to keep a tight reign on her emotions. He hoped that one day she'd learn that sometimes it was okay to cry.

"Do you think Eliot has anything? Something that he stole so he could keep it too?"

This time Hardison swallowed a little harder. "I dunno, Parker."

He wasn't sure what it was that did it, but suddenly her eyes were fiery and she had that set to her mouth like when somebody was about to get stabbed.

Subconsciously he took a step back.

Quickly she got up, and marched out the door, and he almost tripped over his own feet trying to keep up with her as she hurried back into the main room.

"This is stupid," she announced to Nate, as though she were stating an undeniable fact. Although, Hardison mused, to her it probably was.

Nate looked taken aback for a moment, and Hardison wasn't sure if was for her sudden announcement, or simply for the fact that she was apparently speaking to him again.

"We want Eliot back. Eliot wants to come back. This whole thing is stupid. Let's just go get him."

"What do you mean "go get him?"," Nate inquired. "We already went and tried to get him back. We tried a couple of times. What else are we supposed to do?"

"Steal him."

Sophie choked on her tea.

"_Excuse me?_" Nate asked, flabbergasted. "You don't just steal a person Parker!"

"Yeah," Hardison quickly agreed. "Especially one that can kill you with his little finger. That just ain't smart."

Parker shot him what he interpreted to be a mildly disgusted look. "He wouldn't kill us." She looked back at Nate. "And why can't we steal a person? We've stolen everything else. We even stole the little naked man, and Hardison said that couldn't be done either."

Hardison thought that Nate looked rather like a goldfish in the way his mouth kept opening and closing, but no words were coming out.

"Parker," Sophie asked, stepping forward, "how would you propose that we even begin to go about _stealing_ Eliot?"

Suddenly Hardison was very, very afraid. Chileans' bombs be damned, _this_ was the scariest moment of his life.

Parker was grinning.

A _very_ evil grin.

…Poor Eliot.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N - Okay, so here's the last part. (FINALLY!) Hopefully you're not too terribly disappointed. Sadly, I could not work in details of Eliot's past as some of you requested, because it kept seeming forced and out of place. Sorry. Maybe in a different story, as I'm certainly not lacking in the plot bunny department. (They keep multiplying!) Umm, the end might be considered a little sappy, but a lot of people asked for a happy ending to the story and that's kind of a new concept for me. Oh, and I hope I was articulate enough that you guys can get the 'steal-Eliot' plot in here. It makes sense in my head, but as you guys aren't in my head (lucky you) I can't be sure it was clear enough… Anyways, without further ado, here's the last bit. Oh, and PLEASE review. I'll go into withdrawal without them. Seriously. It's not pretty. ;) Just one more thing - thanks to everyone who reviewed before, and I'm sorry if I missed replying to you personally, my computer was being weird for a bit. But thank you so SO much, because you guys rock! =)

**Family - Chapter Four**

It was a brilliant plan, in Parker's opinion. And fun, too. She'd never stolen a person before. Well, there was that one time, with that midget in Uruguay, but really she'd only borrowed him, so that shouldn't count. And besides, he was nowhere near as wily as Eliot.

Eliot. She really missed him. It was odd, the way you never noticed how important something was until you no longer had it. She didn't know how important Eliot was to her, until he wasn't there. Then it was almost like there was this vacuum, where he was before, this hideous echoing emptiness where he should have been. She wondered if she'd miss the others that much, if they were to disappear for so long too. She wasn't sure.

She wasn't too sure about anything anymore. She _had_ been sure that she hadn't needed anybody, needed a team, a family. That she'd forget their names the moment the charade came to an end. But then it did, and she couldn't even forget the sound of their footsteps or the smell of their soap, let alone their names. And then she had been so sure that Eliot would come back. That she just had to talk to him, to make him understand that they wanted him back, not his muscle, or his strange talents, but _him_, because he was family, and that's how families were supposed to be. She was so sure that if she could just make him believe that then he would come back. Come home.

But Nate said Eliot wasn't coming back. And Sophie was all quiet and Hardison was all sulky, and she was the only one who was sure of it, and what if she was wrong again? What if what she was sure of wasn't true at all?

What if Eliot really wasn't coming back?

Well, that was unacceptable. Obviously. She didn't understand why if everybody was so sure he wasn't coming back on his own than they were just standing around moping. How did that help? They'd all looked at her like she'd grown an extra head that was spouting inappropriate jokes when she'd suggested stealing him.

Sometimes, they were so _weird._

Luckily, they eventually saw reason and agreed that stealing Eliot would be the best course of action. And then of course, Nate came up with a plan, and she even got to help with it, because Nate had never actually stolen (or "borrowed") a person before. And it really was a brilliant plan.

So they left their offices (Parker diligently feeding Eliot's plant for him, bologna, because that seemed to be what the little carnivore liked best, much to Hardison's chagrin) and headed off to "The Town That Civilization Forgot", as Hardison liked to call it, which was the place currently holding their Retrieval Specialist. It was ridiculously easy, pulling a con in such a small town, as no one had the big-city paranoia (Sophie called it "shrewdness", but Parker was sticking to paranoia) that was bred in places like LA and Chicago. So when Parker towed away Eliot's heap of a truck, (really, the man was a millionaire, he couldn't afford something better?) from outside the old bar, and Sophie distracted the guy with the bad toupee at the impound lot while Hardison set everything up, nobody so much as blinked in their direction.

Parker giggled gleefully, and ignored Hardison's voice over the coms asking what was so funny. It was like a giant game of mousetrap.

She watched as Eliot approached, the hapless little mouse, looking haggard and angry. His tan was a shade darker, and his rustic-looking shirt was gaping open at the collar, and that white Stetson was still perched upon his long unruly hair. She drank it all in, like a man in the desert dying of thirst, or Nate with an aged bottle of bourbon, focusing on all the little details that she hadn't bothered to notice before, when she thought she'd never miss him. She knew better now, and promised not to make the same mistake twice.

"Parker? Parker. Hey. You see him yet?"

A voice buzzed in her ear, and it took her a moment to recognize Hardison again.

"Yeah, he's on his way."

She forced her feet to move before Eliot could spot her, and went around to join the others. She quickly opened the door to their truck and popped inside, settling herself between Sophie and Hardison, and watched the scene unfurl.

Eliot was not happy. Very, very not happy. Downright pissed, she'd say, if the way he was clenching and unclenching his fists was anything to go by. They were watching the security feed that Hardison had up on his laptop, and even though it didn't have any audio, Parker could almost hear the gruff irritated quality to his voice as he spoke in a carefully controlled manner to the bored-looking toupee man, who finally muttered something and waved in the general direction of the back of the small building. For a brief moment, Parker thought Eliot looked like he was debating punching the guy, but then the fists unclenched again, and he walked in the direction the guy had indicated.

The building may be small, but there were a lot of doors, most of which led to small storage rooms. (Hardison had almost gone apoplectic when he found out that all their records were still hard copies in rooms full of file cabinets as opposed to compressed onto a hard drive.) Eliot arrived at the door at the very back of the building, (which was supposed to lead to the impound lot behind the main offices) and Parker felt a quiver of excitement run through her.

The trap was set, and the mouse was approaching…

Eliot opened the door and stepped inside, never expecting that he had been played.

_Snap!_

They had him.

Eliot looked around the room curiously, squinting in the darkness, taking a few halting steps forward, then spinning around quickly at the sound of metal against metal. It took a moment for him to realize that the door he had walked through was disappearing as a metal panel was sliding into place behind him, much too quickly for him to stop, thanks to some crafty wiring on Hardison's part. He was completely enveloped by the darkness for a moment, before a small light flickered on overhead. He quickly noted that the entire room was made of metal, and that while the ceiling was flat, the sides were indented in sharp waves. Suddenly, the floor lurched beneath his feet, tossing him off balance for a moment, as an engine rumbled to life. The whole enclosure vibrated a bit, swaying in motion, and bumping along every few seconds, and he realized where he was. Parker saw it, the minute he did, on Hardison's small computer screen, as his blue eyes widened just a bit, and his jaw set, and his fingers clenched by his side.

Apparently Nate noticed it too, as he quickly set about turning on the speaker system (again, another of Hardison's quick setups) which was wired into the space Eliot was currently occupying.

"Yes, Eliot, you are in a shipping container. On the back of an eighteen-wheel semi-truck. No, there is no way out, we checked and rechecked that, and no, we are not going to let you out. We decided that you were being just a little too stubborn, so we've been forced to do this the hard way."

"We're stealing you!" Parker piped in helpfully. "Like the little naked man, except without the laser beams and the guys with guns and Nate's ex wife. Oh, and you're clothed," she added, seemingly as an afterthought.

"Stealing me?" they heard him ask (because Hardison's surveillance system _did_ have audio) in a voice that seemed oddly clear of any trace of incredulity.

That was something about Eliot. He had a habit of calling her out on her oddities, saying she was "twenty pounds of crazy in a five pound bag," and maybe that was why he always seemed the least shocked by her peculiarities. It was amusing, that he was most often the one saying that she _wasn't_ normal, but who made her _feel_ the most normal just by not making a big deal out of her being herself. She wondered if he knew that.

Sophie spoke next. "It was Parker's idea." Parker valiantly refrained from rolling her eyes, but surmised that he had already guessed as much. "We want you to come back, but you're being difficult. So we're taking you back. By force."

"Uh-huh… And once you get me back to the new offices, how exactly are you plannin' on keepin' me there?"

They were all silent for a good full minute or two before Harrison (who she greatly suspected considered silence a form of torture) spoke up.

"…Uh, yeah, we hadn't actually thought that far ahead."

Parker saw his smirk, as he settled himself on the floor with his back pressed against the wall of the container. "Mm-hm. Well. One of you better be gettin' my luggage outta my truck. Oh, and Sophie, I can tell that you're the one drivin' this rig, so try and watch out for the potholes, yeah?"

They were all stunned into silence for another long minute until Sophie asked haltingly "Your luggage?", and Hardison said "You mean…", and Parker cried triumphantly "I told you he was coming back!"

A few minutes later they pulled off the side of the road and hopped out of the truck, running around to the back to open the door and let Eliot out. They greeted him properly, and Hardison punched him on the shoulder, and Nate shook his hand, and Sophie gave him a quick hug, before they went back to the cab of the truck, making plans for getting them all back home in a more comfortable fashion. Parker stood there opposite Eliot for a moment, just looking at him, feeling bubbly inside over the fact that he was _here_, and they were going home.

"I told them you were coming back," she told him. "Nobody believed me, and they were all so sure you weren't, especially Nate, so then I started thinking that maybe I was wrong. But I wasn't. You were coming back."

She hadn't meant for the last part to sound so much like a question, but it did. She wondered if he'd answer it.

He took a deep breath, then looked away from her, out at the expanse of empty, dry land. Finally he said "Y'know, I've been left before. Too many times, too many people… I just kept gettin' left behind. But I've never really done the leavin'."

He was quiet again, and unlike Hardison, she held the silence, letting him find whatever he needed in it.

"Besides. I finally figured it out."

She tilted her head, looking at him questioningly, and she guessed he caught it in his peripheral, because he still wasn't looking at her, but he explained.

"We're a mosaic. A bunch of broken people, who don't quite match, stuck together to make one crazy, messed up, beautiful family. Why would I wanna leave that?"

He turned to look at her, and she threw herself into his arms again, hugging the breath out of him and wondering if he'd mind if she made it a daily ritual. Then she stepped back, and she smiled, and he smiled back.

And this time it did reach his eyes.


End file.
